Journalist in western Kenya faces death threats

New York, May 10,
2012--Kenyan authorities must immediately investigate recent death
threats against a Kenyan journalist, the Committee to Protect Journalists said
today.

Local businessman Armstrong
Pino allegedly threatened Joel Eshikumo, a reporter for the Weekly
Citizenand a political columnist for the weekly Western Times, in public on Saturday over photographs the journalist
had taken of him in court on April 27, local journalists told CPJ. Eshikumo told
CPJ that unidentified callers had threatened him every night since Saturday,
saying they would burn his house down and telling him to be prepared to die
over the pictures he had taken of Pino in court.

The journalist, who
is based in Mumias, a town in western Kenya, said that Pino had complained to
the court magistrate after he was photographed, but the judge said Eshikumo was
a journalist and was allowed to take pictures. CPJ's attempts to reach Pino for
comment were unsuccessful as the police had confiscated his phone for evidence,
according to George Seda, the police chief in Mumias.

On Monday, Eshikumo
filed a statement with the police, news
reports said. Seda told CPJ they were investigating the case: "People
cannot live in fear like this, so we are trying our level best to track these
calls."

"Journalists are
routinely threatened in western Kenya simply for doing their job, and some of
these threats have been followed by direct attacks," said CPJ East Africa
Consultant Tom Rhodes. "Authorities must do their utmost to investigate the
threats against Joel Eshikumo and allow him to work without fear of reprisal."

In April, a
businessman in the western town of Kitale threatened
two journalists, Osinde Obare of The
Standard and Radio Citizen reporter David Musindi, for their report on fake
maize seeds being sold in his supermarket, local journalists told CPJ.